The trial for the murder of Thomas Sankara will begin 34 years after the events. 14 people, including former President Blaise Compaoré, will be tried for “attack against state security”, “complicity in murder” and “complicity in concealment of corpses.”
It is a trial that was close to never being carried out. Thirty-four years after the assassination of the President of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, and 12 of his companions, on October 15, 1987, by a commando during a meeting at the headquarters of the National Council of the Revolution (CNR) in Ouagadougou, 14 of the main defendants will be tried from Monday, October 11, in a military court in the capital of Burkina Faso.
President Sankara, nicknamed the ‘African Che Guevara’, came to power after a coup in 1983 and was assassinated at age 37 in a coup that brought Blaise Compaoré, his then comrade in arms, to power.
After Sankara’s assassination, Compaoré remained at the helm of the country for 27 years, before being overthrown after a popular uprising in 2014 and going into exile in Côte d’Ivoire. The main defendant, the 70-year-old former president will not travel to Ouagadougou for trial, his lawyers announced on Thursday, October 7.
However, this historic event is expected both in Burkina Faso and in the rest of the world, as more than 200 international journalists are accredited.
What does former President Thomas Sankara represent?
Thomas Sankara, father of the revolution in Burkina Faso and a pan-African icon, has left an indelible mark on the history of his country. He came to power through a coup in 1983 and changed the name of Upper Volta, given by French settlers to the country, to Burkina Faso, which means ‘the country of men of integrity’.
“Thomas Sankara demonstrated that it was possible to develop his country independently by giving confidence to its population. His objective was to bring national wealth to fruition and transform it into the territory itself”, underlines Bruno Jaffré, author of ‘L’insurrection inachevée. Burkina 2014 ‘(The unfinished insurrection. Burkina 2014) and moderator of the website Thomassankara.net, contacted by France 24.
“Beyond Burkina Faso, he is an anti-imperialist revolutionary who had in his heart to represent the voice of the oppressed around the world and who dared to carry out acts of independence with respect to France”, adds the specialist.
Thirty-four years after his death, his aura continues to grow, especially among young people, who have a true cult for him, without having met him.
Why did this trial take 34 years to complete?
“When the date of the trial was announced, the Burkina Faso couldn’t believe it,” says Jaffré. The announcement of the military court in Ouagadougou on August 17 had the same effect as a bomb in a country where the mere mention of the murder of Thomas Sankara was forbidden for a long time.
“The Blaise Compaoré regime did everything possible to block judicial proceedings and it was not until its fall in 2014 that things moved forward,” explains the specialist.
In fact, it was the democratic transition regime that revived the case in March 2015. In December of that same year, the Burkinabe justice issued an international arrest warrant against Blaise Compaoré and subsequently, in February 2020, a first reconstruction of the murder of Thomas Sankara at the crime scene; the headquarters of the National Council of the Revolution (CNR) in Ouagadougou. The investigating judge then referred the case to a military court in October 2020, paving the way for a trial, which will begin on October 11.
“But first there will be a big legal battle,” warns Bruno Jaffré. “Defense attorneys will do everything possible to delay or even annul the trial.” They point out that the international arrest warrant issued against Blaise Compaoré “was annulled by the Court of Cassation of Burkina Faso on April 28, 2016” and is therefore no longer relevant. They also argue that the former president has never been “summoned for questioning” and that “he has never been notified of any act other than his final summons to appear in court.” They also claim that Blaise Compaoré enjoys “immunity as a former head of state.”
Indeed, the prosecutor of the Court of Cassation, Armand Ouédraogo, had announced in April 2016 the annulment of the international arrest warrant against Blaise Compaoré due to a formal defect. But a month later, the government commissioner at the Ouagadougou military court, Alioune Zanré, denied this information, stating that the annulled orders only referred to the case of the September 2015 coup.
Questioned by the press agency AFP, Guy Hervé Kam, lawyer for the civil part, stated that “the announcement of the absence of Blaise Compaoré in this trial is not surprising when you know the history of the country and the role played by President Compaoré (…) We know that he never assumed anything ”.
“What is reassuring in the current phase of the case is that their presence is not necessary for the determination of the truth,” he added, because “the elements of the file will undoubtedly allow, at the end of the trial, to determine the individual responsibility of all the accused”.
Who are the defendants?
14 of the main defendants will be tried, including Blaise Compaoré, who lives in exile in the Ivory Coast, where he has obtained Ivorian nationality. Sankara’s right-hand man, Compaoré, has always denied ordering the murder of his brother-in-arms and close friend, although the 1987 coup brought him to power.
General Gilbert Diendéré, 61, is another defendant at the trial. He was one of the main leaders of the army during the 1987 coup. Diendéré, who later became President Compaoré’s private chief of staff, is already serving a 20-year prison sentence in Burkina Faso for an attempted coup. in 2015. Both he and Blaise Compaoré are charged with “complicity in assassinations”, “concealment of bodies” and “attack against state security”.
Soldiers from Compaoré’s former presidential guard, including former officer Hyacinthe Kafando, accused of being the commando leader and currently in hiding, are also among those charged.
Initially more people were implicated, but “many have died”, according to lawyers for the civil party.
What can you expect from this trial?
If the murder of Thomas Sankara is the subject of much speculation about the possible involvement of foreign countries, such as France, Ivory Coast, Libya or Liberia, the trial that begins on Monday will focus on Burkinabe actors and what happened in Burkina Faso .
“The absence of Blaise Compaoré is regrettable, but whether he is there or not, the question of his responsibility will be at the center of the trial,” said Bruno Jaffré.
The investigating judge was able to question all the living witnesses who were present at the Council on the day of the murder and who had never spoken until now. These have shed light on various gray areas.
“Thanks to elements of the investigation that have been leaked to the press, we know that the command left the house of Blaise Compaoré and that General Diendéré was present in the Council to direct the operations,” said the specialist.
In addition to the precise sequence of the murder, the trial will try to shed light on the accomplices, in particular those who played a role after the death of Thomas Sankara. The death certificate of the former president, drawn up by the doctor Jean Christophe Diébré, indicated, for example, a “natural death”. The latter has been prosecuted for “forgery in public deed.”
Will the question of the role of France be addressed?
Although the international ramifications will not be at the center of the trial, France will not be totally absent from the military court in Ouagadougou.
“The investigation has established that French agents were present in Burkina Faso the day after the murder, October 16, 1987, to destroy the wiretaps targeting Blaise Compaoré and Jean-Pierre Palm, a gendarmerie officer now indicted in the Sankara case, “said Bruno Jaffré.
Many observers believe that Thomas Sankara’s regime disturbed what was then known as France. In addition to his emancipatory discourse, which would probably have been emulated in West Africa, Sankara has also shown his support for the inclusion of New Caledonia on the United Nations list of territories to be decolonized.
Emmanuel Macron pledged in November 2017, during a trip to Burkina Faso, to raise the “secret defense” of all French archives relating to the assassination of Thomas Sankara. Since then, three batches of declassified documents have been delivered to Ouagadougou. But they only contain secondary documents and no documents from the cabinets of François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac, President of the Republic and Prime Minister of France respectively at the time of the events.
“In the documents provided so far there is no sign of the French presence on October 16, 1987 in Ouagadougou, although these documents necessarily exist. Emmanuel Macron has not kept his promise. This clearly shows that there is a certain discomfort,” said Bruno Jaffré.
This article was adapted from its original in French.
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